Trio of starters provides latest example of Rays' postseason pitching prowess

NEW YORK -- The schedule for this year’s American League Division Series came with an extra off-day that, theoretically, meant teams would only need three starting pitchers.

But the Rays swept the Yankees by using all five of theirs, brilliantly executing a pitching plan they devised during the downtime between their regular-season finale in Philadelphia and their Game 1 victory behind ace Drew Rasmussen at Tropicana Field last Saturday.

Rasmussen did the heavy lifting in the opener, pitching eight masterful innings in a 1-0 win. Freddy Peralta and Ian Seymour combined to cover 7 2/3 innings during their 5-2 victory in Game 2. Then Nick Martinez, Seymour and Griffin Jax teamed up to pitch a combined seven innings in the Rays’ 4-3, series-clinching triumph over the Yankees on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

“Our starters this year, those five guys, the way they've been throwing down the stretch, they're as critical to our success as possible,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said amid the clubhouse celebration. “You only need three starters. But somehow, some way, we talked about, ‘How do we get all these guys involved?’ Because you're going to need them, and it couldn't have worked out better.”

The Rays recorded 81 outs in the series. The five pitchers who ended the regular season in their rotation were on the mound for 68 of them. Closer Bryan Baker nailed down nine, getting the save in all three games, while lefty Cam Booser picked up three and Kevin Kelly got a huge one by striking out Giancarlo Stanton in Game 3.

The plan required some creativity from manager Kevin Cash, pitching coach Kyle Snyder and the staff. It took flexibility from the pitchers involved, especially Seymour and Jax as they temporarily moved back to the bullpen after transitioning to the rotation early on in the regular season.

“We're all about just getting outs as a pitching staff, man,” said Martinez, who allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings in Game 3 and reported no issues after taking a comebacker off his back at the end of his outing. “We know how important every out is in the playoffs, and we don't care what capacity we do it in. We just want to get outs.”

More than anything, though, it demanded the nearly flawless execution those pitchers delivered throughout the series against a Yankees lineup that had just scored 18 runs in a two-game Wild Card Series sweep of the Red Sox. The Rays held them to five runs in three games.

“That’s the series right there,” Cash said. “We were able to stay in rhythm, stay in sync. … And the way our pitchers just executed multiple times through that lineup was really, really impressive.”

Game 3 could have gotten out of hand when Jax came out of the bullpen to pitch the sixth inning. He issued a one-out walk to George Lombard Jr., got a potentially devastating walk to Austin Wells overturned to become a strikeout with a well-timed challenge, then gave up what was initially ruled a game-tying homer to Anthony Volpe.

After a replay review, umpires correctly called spectator interference, which scored a run that brought the Yankees within one and placed Volpe at second base. Jax struck out Spencer Jones to end the inning then mowed through Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham and Ben Rice in the seventh.

“Really impressed with Griffin Jax after what took place,” Cash said. “The frustration that probably was coming through his mind that he thought it was a homer, to be able to bear down right there and get Spencer Jones for the strikeout and then go back out and have a really dominant inning was huge.”

With two games at home and an off-day before three consecutive games on the road, the AL Championship Series typically requires a four-man rotation. The way the Rays got through the ALDS should set them up extremely well for the ALCS, which begins Monday at Tropicana Field. It also provided a ton of rest for their bullpen while their potential opponents are using just about every pitcher at their disposal to get through their series.

Rasmussen will presumably return for Game 1, with additional rest thanks to the quick sweep. Then the Rays can roll out whatever combination of Peralta, Martinez, Jax and Seymour they see fit, and they can potentially use them out of the bullpen between starts.

They kept that option available with Peralta, who was available out of the bullpen in Game 1 then wound up starting Game 2, then used Seymour in consecutive games with just one day of rest in between.

Once again, the Rays have time to come up with a plan. They have plenty of good options available. And they have confidence they’ll do whatever it takes to keep advancing through October.

“We've been doing that for about seven months now, just finding different ways,” Baker said. “I think we won a game in about every different way you can this year, so to go ahead and clinch on a win like that, it was pretty special.”